If you want to mount VirtualBox drive image (vdi) in Ubuntu 12.04/12.10 use vdfuse.This Fuse module uses the VirtualBox access library to open a VirtualBox supported VD image file and mount it as a Fuse file system. The mount point contains a flat directory containing the files EntireDisk, Partition1 .. PartitionN. These can then be loop mounted to access the underlying file systems.

On Wednesday, the Italian region of Puglia passed a law requiring the public sector to utilise more open source software and to make more data freely available to the public. The law consists of 21 articles setting out a series of rules aimed at fundamentally changing the relationship between the citizens and the regional government. The law gives the region's citizens the right to access all information and services provided by the public sector in digital form. Digital diversity is also to be encouraged through the use and dissemination of open source software.

Earlier this week at DebConf there was a discussion about Debian derivatives so that Debian's offspring could share their experiences and also for the Debian developers to share various derivative-related initiatives. Some friction between Debian and distributions based upon it (namely Ubuntu) were exposed.

Jerome Glisse has published a new patch to enable HyperZ support for the AMD Radeon (R600g) Gallium3D driver. While this patch could be pushed to Mesa, it's not being enabled by default as it's still causing some GPU lock-ups and developers can't seem to figure out the cause. Jerome is now moving onto other work...

Developers could be seriously out of pocketVid A Russian hacker claims to have found a way to crack the in-app purchasing mechanism used in iOS so that users can get free content in a variety of applications.…

Denies that app hackers are fleeing the platformAlec Saunders, RIM's VP of developer relations, wishes the press and analyst community would get its "bleeding" story straight about the BlackBerry developer community.…

In the last seven days: a new Secure Boot-enabled PC landed, a first release of the E17 desktop is on approach, and new malware locked onto all major OS platforms. Also, the Kernel Log series took a look at architecture, driver and infrastructure changes in the upcoming 3.5 Linux kernel release, and Glyn Moody looked at problems caused by low-cost Android tablets

With Valve Software's ambitious plans for Linux, they have just picked up another Linux development all-star. Their latest hire has been working on Linux games for more than a decade, is a former Loki Software developer, and he's the creator of SDL.

Funduntu 2012.3 is somewhat unique among Linux distributions. While you find many Debian and Ubuntu spins and forks you do not find as many Red Hat spins and forks that are user friendly, and more, optimized for laptops and netbooks.